- ZTE announced on April 14 that the company entered into a cooperation agreement with China Unicom, under which ZTE will help the latter upgrading its mobile network from HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) to HSPA+ (Evolved High Speed Packet Access), the Sina Tech News reported on April 15, as part of its effects to accelerate the development of 4G. ZTE stated that the company prepares for a HSPA+ upgrade to take place in seven cities such as Changchun, Ningbo, and Wuhan. China Mobile declared in March that the company is set to complete a nationwide HSPA+ upgrade in 56 Chinese cities by year-end 2011. Upon the completion of upgrade, China Unicom’s HSPA+ network is capable of delivering 21Mbps downlink speed, up from the current 14.4Mbps. In addition, China Unicom stated that the company is projected to increase its mobile network spending by 24% to 19.5 billion RMB (US$3 billion; US$1 = 6.5 RMB).
Meanwhile, China Unicom is reportedly to begin launching a new promotional packable for iPhone 4 on April 14, the Guangzhou Daily reported on April 13. This new package is the follow-up version of its older iPhone package, which has been terminated. Under the new contract, users are allowed to buy an iPhone without subscribing to China Unicom’s contract plan. Without a contract plan, the 16G iPhone 4 now is priced at 4,999 RMB (US$769.1) and 32G iPhone 4 at 5,999 RMB (US$922.9). Subscribing to the cheapest package at a monthly fee of 66 RMB (US$10.2), users can receive a monthly rebate of 26 RMB (US$4) and, therefore, they only need to pay as low as 40 RMB (US$6.15) per month, according to the same source.